First day C/T and in HELL from Codeine addiction!!

I have an addiction to panenfen plus and neurofen plus ( a combination of ibprofin and codeine). 15 years ago I beat a 10 year codeine addiction by going into a clinic for a month. I cant believe after everything I learned in that place that I thought I would be fine taking a few pills for back pain. This started about 3 years years but has now spiraled into a full blown addiction again. I was taking about 30 panefen plus a day and could start to feel what the ibprofen was doing to my stomach and liver. Yesterday morning when I woke up I decided today was the day. So I took only 4 pills and went to work and the entire day made sure I kept busy enough to try and not notice too much the gradual unease and stress and anxiety I was starting to feel. Luckily I have my own business( a boutique) so I decided to lock myself in at night in the store and sleep on the sofa out the back so I wouldnt be tempted to reach into my drawer at home to take the pills. Its now 6am this morning so I have just survived a full 24 hours and now entering my second day. Last night was the most awful hideous HELL tossing and turning,sweating, getitng up and walking back and forth. I am feeling incredibly weak and anxious and feel like my insides are crawling with worms right now. I am heading home now and just pray that I have the willpower to not use. I have arranged for the next 3 days for someone to work for me. It is Wednesday now. They cannot do Saturday for me so unfortunately I have to go in and work on Saturday which if I am successful will be my 5th day. I am praying and hoping I will be capable of working on Saturday as I have no choice. Can anyone let me know what the 5th day is like compared to the first few days?

[vicki595]

Hi~ Everyone is different but if you're having withdrawals this bad on the first day,they should peak on the 3rd day. You could feel a lot better by Friday. It's not carved in stone
and you won't feel wonderful.

The things you need to address are hydration,blood sugar levels,and sleep. So,be sure to take fluids liberally,eat,and take what you can to sleep.

You also need to get the pills out of the house. This is not a struggle of will,it's your life!

Keep posting~

[Addict63]

I had been sober and drug free in AA for many years. I had joined AA because I found I couldn't drink successfully. The AA program really worked well for me. And then my back blew. I, too, thought I would be fine taking a few pills for my back pain. The same exact thing happened to me that happened to you. Been there done that! I now know that I can never use opiates, or any other mind altering drug, solid or liquid, successfully. So now i go to NA also. 225 days clean and counting. It helps to be with others in the same boat.

Vicki gave U some very good helpful advise to get you through WD. I hope Saturday turns out well for you. I'm sure you'll get through the day Saturday, but it won't be a good idea to have your drug of choice waiting for you when you get home! Like Vicki suggests, get rid of them, like your life depends on it.

[iwannabefree]

Thanks Vicki and addict63. Unfortunately yesterday (my second day c/t) I went to the doctors and he was shocked to find my blood pressure 189 over 110 and promptly ordered an ambulance for me because he said I could have a stroke anytime. After telling him I was going through withdrawls he told me I would be better tapering very slowly. Basically to cut a long story short I went home and took only 4 pills. This only took the slight edge off it but I didnt take any more. My plan now is to try and make it through until the same time tomorrow and take 4 more. Because I am going to do this slowly I am now planning to do this for 1 week and then only take out a quater of one of the pills so I am down to 3 and 3 quarters. I am hoping this will be less drastic on my body. I have to monitor my blood pressure constantly now but if I only delete a quarter of one pill every week until I am down to 1 a day I am hoping this will work. Has anyone else had any success cutting out this way? Also has anyone else experienced drastic rising blood pressure?

[shiningstar500]

I did the taper route and it worked really well for me but you do have withdrawls with the taper. I didn't have bad withdrawls once I stopped though. Mainly just stomach trouble. Immodium worked great for that. I wish you the best and good luck to you!

[iwannabefree]

Thanks shiningstar500 Well I started c/t early in the morning last tuesday. It was 3 pm yesterday when I nearly had a stroke when my bloodpressure hit the roof at a rediculous 189/110. I had never had high blood pressure a day in my life so I knew staright away it was what the c/t was doing to my body. Thats when I took my doctors advise and took 4 pills on wednesday at 3pm 33 hours after I had started c/t. It only took the edge off but it allowed for my blood pressure to come down and for my migraine to eventually go away and for me to get a  nights sleep last night,not a great nights sleep but not the horrific night I ahd the night before. Its 4pm here in Australia on thursday so 25 hours after those 4 pills, but I feel ok. Not great but ok. But the wonderful thing is that in 3 days I have only had 8 pills altogether from start till now and Im sitting here watching movies, able to read and even to sleep a little. I have always found when trying to quit the pills the diarrhoea was what made me worse than anything because it would leave me trembling,shaky and so weak I was nearly passing out and running to the toilet almost every 10-15 minutes,so I am thanking God for finding this forum and taking everyones advise on the imodium (immodium). God! What a lifesavor! I have also decided to take a week off work and just treat myself well, having hot baths soaking in muscle relaxants and I have also booked myself into a place for a full body massage every second day while Im off work. Once I am feeling up to it I intend to find a hotel apartment right on the ocean front and stay there and indulge myself for 2 more days and then off back to work. I am learning to treat myself and my body with love and respect. At first I thought I couldnt afford any of these things then then I worked out what I would be spending on pills for a week and realized I must be able to afford it. Ok I am probably rambling right now,but it is keeping me ocupied which I need right now.  After this I will spend an hour or two reading everyones entries and ansering some of them when I feel the urge. A few more hours knocked off my waiting time. While my blood pressure is down I am trying to see how long I can last before my next taper. I am hoping it will just keep going and I will eventually find it another day or two, but I am being kind to my body first. In the meantime I will keep writing on this forum. I have learned the true meaning of "One day at a time"!...........Peace an love to all my kindred on this journey of ours. A journey that hopefully comes out into the light. God Bless.....Christine

[gnarly_1]

HI Christine welcome to the forum where glad you found your way here...C/T is not for everyone it does put your body under a lot of stress the blood pressure spike is fairly normal for detoxing if yours is getting that high keep an eye on it wile tapering mine normally ran ok but during the final weeks of detoxing off methadone it was up 110 over 170 I got alarmed and told my doctor I was detoxing and winding down a 8 1/2 mo taper off methadone...I asked him if we should be medicating it and he said no..'''will  keep an eye on it'' your normally ok...I got to tell you I was on pins and needles till I got threw my detox
just know its normal for it to be a little high....your doing good on your taper ..the doctor should have gave you some guidelines to follow stick with them and in a couple of weeks you should be threw with this the goal is to get clean here how you go about it is your choice we have had members successfully C/T as well as taper what ever works best for you keep posting for support good luck and God bless.....Gnarly    

[iwannabefree]

Thanks for the advise Gnarly. Well I have officially just gone into day 2 again. Its been 25 hours now since I decided to try tapering instead of c/t. Im going to just keep going to see how far I can go before I take my next taper. Im hoping that this sort of turns into c/t again and I can last the detox time without a pill at all, but I am not putting myself under that pressure of deciding thats definately what Im doing. Im not sure why but Im finding that knowing that I can still use the taper seems to be giving me strength to keep going c/t but without the pressure. Im nowhere near as sick and ill as I was the other day when I first tried c/t. Maybe theres a type of personality(and I seem to have it) where its easier to go cold turkey if I dont make promises to myself, at least until I get past the 5 days straight without a pill. After that I will definately be making BIG promises to myself. But this seems to go against everything most people tell you on these boards. Im not sure what to think. All I know is that right now right this minute I feel like I can really make it this time , without being so sick I just want to curl up and die. I have had people say to get every pill out of the house, but the odd thing is knowing I have them is making it a lot easier on me to get through this c/t. When I didnt have them in my house and I tried cold turkey the anxiety and panic attacks were almost worse the withdrawls. Anyway, I may be the odd one out here, but keeping them in my house until I am through with the detox, and also to not make promises to myself over the next few days is definately a lot more calming to me. Once Im past the detox of course I will throw them as far away from me as possible, but until then their presence is making it easier for me not harder. I have my mind very set and very focused that I am going to beat this thing.